Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Heartbroken by the Sonos App Disaster and What's Happened to the Company

old.reddit.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 49 posts

Re: Heartbroken by the Sonos App Disaster and What's Happened to the Company

#21

Post by _heimdall »

stephenitis wrote: post #9

My Sonos experience has been fine eight years now 10+ devices. That said I do dislike the new app rollout. I do feel like there has been 500ms to 2 seconds of added lag in certain actions. I can't quite place what's going on though. Not enough to be a deal breaker yet. I feel the surround sound experience has been very hit or miss but can't tell if it's Sonos or the media platform I'm watching videos on.

The deal breaker for me has been the loss of certain features. Specifically for me, they removed most of the functionality related to local network music libraries.

Originally they said the feature was totally supported but just didn't make the cut for the initial app release. I've heard that story before, including from my own PMs. Can't say I'm too surprised that the feature still isn't supported and I've yet to see any further mention of adding it back.

Re: Heartbroken by the Sonos App Disaster and What's Happened to the Company

#22

Post by yumraj »

dr_kiszonka wrote: post #11
ryndbfsrw wrote: post #2

I feel certain products just dont need apps or 'tech'. Speakers should not be 'smart' anymore than a powertool needs an app. It just turns products that should otherwise be long-lasting become disposable waste once software support evaporates for any reason. I dont think it was a good product even back when it did 'work'. We received a pair as a house-warming gift and I remember not understanding how or why I should…

Imagine living in a big house and having the music follow you from room to room, from one floor to another, playing from high def wireless speakers that you can place anywhere you want. I think that is a pretty neat idea. I don't have a house or Sonos speakers, but I can see how some people would want that experience.

To be honest, that sounds great in a hotel. But a home, really.

Or, as you said, perhaps I don’t have a big enough house nor do I need to listen to music 24x7 or have it follow me.

Re: Heartbroken by the Sonos App Disaster and What's Happened to the Company

#23

Post by voisin »

portn0y wrote: post #14
dr_kiszonka wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine living in a big house and having the music follow you from room to room, from one floor to another, playing from high def wireless speakers that you can place anywhere you want. I think that is a pretty neat idea. I don't have a house or Sonos speakers, but I can see how some people would want that experience.

I have that experience. Like every other experience the novelty wears off and I find myself keeping the vibe to a room because it’s distracting; lizard brain stays connected to music and I forget why I went across the house. In the end I use it so sparingly (social gatherings) owners of detached homes without shared walls, could save the money and time and just turn up the volume. That said, as always, YMMV

Is there a way to set up Sonos so the music follows you from room to room?

Re: Heartbroken by the Sonos App Disaster and What's Happened to the Company

#24

Post by jitl »

tikkun wrote: post #6

Sonos owner; I strongly dislike it. I disliked it on the old app, too. Will get Apple homepods next.

I haven’t had good experienced getting HomePods to play well from a Mac. They do alright enough from my phone or AppleTV but they’re much less reliable than 3rd party Airplay2 speakers like the Kef LS 50 Wireless II I have upstairs. I swear the next time I get an audio drop or stutter from them or an infinite beach ball trying to press play in Spotify Mac, I’m retiring them to “set timer” only duty and buying something else, maybe the desktop speakers from KEF or whatever looks good on audiosciencereview.com for desk form factor

Airplay2 to my Apple TV and from the TV through to a “dumb” receiver and speakers works great, I would highly suggest that route for your main system. For me it’s the right balance between “just works” convenience and audiophile sound quality.

Re: Heartbroken by the Sonos App Disaster and What's Happened to the Company

#25

Post by mturmon »

portn0y wrote: post #14
dr_kiszonka wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine living in a big house and having the music follow you from room to room, from one floor to another, playing from high def wireless speakers that you can place anywhere you want. I think that is a pretty neat idea. I don't have a house or Sonos speakers, but I can see how some people would want that experience.

I have that experience. Like every other experience the novelty wears off and I find myself keeping the vibe to a room because it’s distracting; lizard brain stays connected to music and I forget why I went across the house. In the end I use it so sparingly (social gatherings) owners of detached homes without shared walls, could save the money and time and just turn up the volume. That said, as always, YMMV

100%.

I have the same experience - my home runs seven Logitech (formerly Slim Devices) “squeezebox” players from a home server with a ripped collection and options for Spotify. The networked players either have their own speaker, or are connected to amp/speakers. In practice almost all of our music plays through these devices. It’s great.

The only time we connect multiple players to sync up is at larger parties, like once a year. It’s just one button press to do it, so not using this capability isn’t that it’s too complex, it just turns out not to be that useful to us.

The main use case for multi zone audio is handled by the A/B/A+B speaker setting on one particular amp.

As you say, YMMV.

Re: Heartbroken by the Sonos App Disaster and What's Happened to the Company

#27

Post by brnt »

udjdjdvehrh wrote: post #16
udjdjdvehrh wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its called headphones

Also the killer feature is that you don't annoy everyone else in your household

Or neighbourhood. I have neighbours with horror vacui: they just need noise 24x7 and their garden is no exception.

I really do not understand this feature. If I want to listen to music without headphone, I'm going to sit down in front of my stereo where sound is best.

Re: Heartbroken by the Sonos App Disaster and What's Happened to the Company

#28

Post by belZaah »

I know this feeling, having seen an universally loved service made by passionate excellent engineers, my people, driven to shit along with the organization. It took a long time to get to grips with it. But then I realized, that the people who did it, made a whole lot of money. I might think it morally wrong, but I also understand I might not be able to resist the temptation to do the same, if someone promised me the same piles of cash. Gotta accept the failures of the man.

Re: Heartbroken by the Sonos App Disaster and What's Happened to the Company

#29

Post by raffraffraff »

portn0y wrote: post #14
dr_kiszonka wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine living in a big house and having the music follow you from room to room, from one floor to another, playing from high def wireless speakers that you can place anywhere you want. I think that is a pretty neat idea. I don't have a house or Sonos speakers, but I can see how some people would want that experience.

I have that experience. Like every other experience the novelty wears off and I find myself keeping the vibe to a room because it’s distracting; lizard brain stays connected to music and I forget why I went across the house. In the end I use it so sparingly (social gatherings) owners of detached homes without shared walls, could save the money and time and just turn up the volume. That said, as always, YMMV

When I bought my house 13 years ago I asked the electrician to run speaker cable from the living room into the adjoining kitchen. I wired up two pairs of extremely competent car speakers in series (because 4ohms) in the kitchen ceiling, one over each corner of the dining table. I have two amps in the living room, one is an ancient 5.1ch Yamaha that runs a very decent set of speakers and sub, and a nice little Denon stereo amp that's hooked into the kitchen speakers. A single 7.1ch usb sound card runs both, and that's connected to a MeLe Quieter (tiny little N100 device attached to my TV). The entire setup is dirty cheap and let's me fill the downstairs of my home with glorious music, and it never fails. I can swap out any of the bits easily (in fact I replaced my main floorstanders with a lovely pair of DALI a year ago). I've never wanted to extend that upstairs. In the bedrooms, some really nice Edifier Bluetooth speakers are more than adequate, and in our offices we mainly use headphones (in my case I still use my old wired Senheisser HD700 because they're the most comfortable things ever)

I love my tech stuff, and I've got home assistant doing the lights, but it never once crossed my mind to mess with the sound system, except for occasional hifi upgrades. Eg next up: run a subwoofer cable from the stereo amp to the kitchen, but I'm in no rush.

Re: Heartbroken by the Sonos App Disaster and What's Happened to the Company

#30

Post by raffraffraff »

Spivak wrote: post #7

What's the current best whole home audio setup that doesn't locks you into a specific brand/product line? Must work on iOS/Android/PC, sorry AirPlay. I'm okay with smart dongle-y things that don't fit the criteria so long as they could run on a set of passive speakers. Because if they turn to shit I just pitch them.

Ask yourself if you really need "whole home" audio. Most people assume they do, but then find that they never use that feature in several rooms. If you're likely to play the same music in two adjoining rooms (that's what I do) then regular old hifi with an extra cable run works. You could link the tape/MD record output of an main amp into one of the inputs of a secondary amp so they play the same thing. Then book a dumb-dumb Logitech Bluetooth audio receiver to the main amp. Voila, extremely simple two room audio on a shoestring. The amp for room 2 can switch inputs or be turned off.
Post reply on HN